Oh, Newt

It really tells you something about this GOP field that Newt Gingrich hasn’t been the most cynical, most hypocritical, or most flat-out entertainingly crazy candidate this year. But those of us hoping for more out of Newt this cycle need not panic – Digby and Jonathan Bernstein have you covered. Here’s the man himself:

On WBS this morning, Gingrich defended Cain on recent sexual harassment allegations, saying the media is on a witch hunt for Cain.

“Here’s a situation where we’ve got a guy who’s the front runner for the Republican nomination, has a serious proposal on tax policy: 999, whether you like or dislike it, it is a serious big idea,” Gingrich said. “He’s out there trying to help a country that’s in desperate trouble, and he has gotten more coverage over the last few days over gossip.”

It also gives me a chance (again) to tell my favorite part of the story, which is that after spending the spring vowing to talk about Lewinsky in every speech, Newt then — when GOP polling tanked in the fall — immediately turned around and started bashing the press for ignoring the issues and only wanting to talk about the White House scandal. While planning to impeach the president immediately after the elections, so it’s not as if it was an irrelevant topic to ask him about.

Newt may be politically washed up, but today he proved that he can still hack it up with the best of them.